Process for the preparation of feldspathic flux for porcelain



April 19, 1932- c. H. PEDDRICK, JR., ET AL 1,855,115

PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF FELDSPATHIC FLUX FOR PORCELAIN I OriginalFiled Nov. 28, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet sal April. 19, 1932. c. H. PEDDRICK,JR. ET AL 1,855,115

PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF FELDSPATHIC FLUX FOR PORCELAIN OriginalFiled Nov. 28, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I J I 1 l L H ,LML

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/ fimzem April 19, 1932- c. H. PEDDRICK. JR.. ET AL 1,855,115

PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF FELDSPATHIC FLUX FOR PORCELAIN 1925 3Sheets-Sheet Original Filed Nov. 28,

i Patented 19,1932

ms STATE-S PATE T o 'FIcE ems nwrnnnnrcx, .13., or GLOVERSVILLE, NEWYORK'AND PHILIP WAGER,

' LEWIS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNORS TO UNITED FELDSPAR CORPORA-TIO NQ OF YORK, H. Y., A CORPORATION OF- NEW YORK PROCESS FOR THEPREPARATIQN OF FELDSPAT-HIC rnux FOR POBCELAIN.

application filed November 2a, 1925 Serial 1%. 71,962. Renewed December22, m1. 7

This invention relates to ceramic art, and has special reference to aprocess for the preparation'of feldspathic flux for porcelain, glass,enamel, etc.

5 It is well lmown (Non-Metallic Minerals by Ladoo, 1925, pages 212-213)that theoretically pure feldspars are alumino silicates of potassium,sodium, calcium and rare- 1y barium, and that such theoretically pure .0feldspars-of any type are not found in commercialquantities.

porcelain, glass, their content of one or another kind of pure feldspar,

kali, or other ingredient. The desires and neseveral views, and:Feldspathic fluxes form enamel, etc., vary widely in Oncontent ofdifferent kinds, and 5 also in their content of quartz or silica, al-'cessities of users of feldspathic fluxes vary widely,

to enable feldspathic flux to be prepared at D the mill 6f uniform,standard composition which can be repeated at will, instead of leavingthe customer to buy, subject to acceptance or rejection, feldspars ofspecified grade, such as #1, 2, or .#3, (Ladoo, page 220) 5 but ofunknown and varying composition,-

and make up his own flux with other materials after analyzing eachshipment ofeach grade of feldspar he may have ordered.

F eldspar, which is a constituent of most of the flux used, is generallysold without any positive knowledge of its chemical contents, the rockbeing simply mined and crushed. Consequently, each consumer inust mixwith the feldspathic rock which they purchase additional quartz, alkalior pure feldspar, or such other ingredient as maybe necessary, to givethe proper mixture, and even under these circumstances there is nodefinite means of determining ,the proper proportions until the finishedmaterial isturned out of the kilns, this often resulting in a loss ofthe whole batch.

The present rocess provides for the preparation at the eldspar' mill ofa definite flux composition suitable for the requirements of theparticular customer, and one which is ready to be used by the consumerwithout the addition of quartz, alkali or-pure feldspar, or anyotheringredient, to bring the flux up to'the desired chemical content.The variand it is the object of this invention have the deliver plingdevice,

ous industries manufacturing-ware for dif- 1 ferent purposes usedifferent proportions in the flux, and a second important object of the4 invention is to provide, at the mill, for the preparation by ourimproved rocess a flux suitable for the requirements oi variouspurposes. a In the accompanying drawings like characters of referenceindicate like parts in the 60 Figure 1 is a transverse section through arow of bins and showing the apparatus connected therewith for ourimproved method of preparing the flux,

Figure 2 is a front paratus,

Figure 3 is a plan view thereof,

Figure 4 is a detail view through a conveyor shown herewith and'showingthe samelevat ion" of such ap- Figure 5 is a section on the line VV ofFig. 4,

Figure 6 is a side elevational view of a high intensity magneticseparator which forms a f part of the apparatus, and A Figure 7 is avertical sectional view of the separator shown in Figure 6. In carryingout the invention herein disclosed there is provided a series of binswhich are indicated at ,10, arranged side by side to spouts 11 at theirbottom ends. Extending along the tops of these bins beneath thereceiving pan. The. receiving longitudinally of the series is a trackway".12 whereon is supported by means of the wheels 13, a reversiblytraveling conveyor14= which is here shown as of the endless belt type.At each end of this conveyor between the side frames 15 is hung areceiving pan 16 adapted to empty into a suitable spout 17 positioned topans 16 are driven by the connections 16a leading from the supportingpulleys for the belt conveyor 14. -Du ring the operation of theconveyor, the pan at the end of the conveyor toward which material isbeing moved is repeatedly filled with samples of the material,which'samples are carried through the bin 10 receiving the material, bythe proper-spout 17, and deposited below the said bin into a suitablere'cep" not shown. At the back netic separator system,

of the row of bins, and preferably disposed centrally thereof is anelevator 18 having'a delivery spout 19 at its upper end to delivermaterial to the conveyor'l l. Adjacent to the lower end of this elevator18 is a rock crusher 20 driven from a suitable motor 21.

Extending longitudinally of the series of bins but arranged beneath themis a second trackway '22 whereon travels a scale 23 car rying a weighinghopper 24 into which the spouts 11 selectively deliver. This hopper 24in turn delivers to an elevator 25 which conveys material up to the topof a large storage bin 26 having a delivery nozzle or spout 27 leadingto a pulverizer 28. r The material discharged from the pulverizer 28 isdeposited onto a conveyor belt 29, see Fig. 6. The conveyor feeds thematerial between the poles of a high intensity magdesignated in itsentirety by the reference character 30.

This mfagnetic system is employed for re- 7 moving the mica particlesfrom the feldspar.

This statement would appear to be erroneous for mica is generally knownas a dielectric and non-magnetic material, however, it has spar contentand kind from that in parts of the mine, or in other mines. Some beendiscovered that the mica in a great many feldspar mines, or deposits,has a metallic mineral, such as iron, adhering to it and is known asblack mica, biotite, or iron mica which is, to some extent, magnetic andcan be removed as stated. v

As shown in the drawings, themagnet system includes a plurality of pairsof upper 'electromagnets andlower, opposed horseshoe 31 which have theiralined poles 32 arranged on opposite sides of the conveyor belt 29. Invertical alinement with each set of alined poles are three pulleys 33which are all located above the plane of the upper side of the belt.Traveling upon each set of three pulleys is a cross belt34 which iscarried be- .tween the face of the upper pole and the material. Due tothe high magnetic concentration on the upper pole, caused by theconverging field, the magnetic force of the upper pole supersedesthat-of'the lower, so that as the conveyor belt passes between the polesof the magnets, the magnetic-particles are strongly attracted toward theupper pole and jump toward it. They are intercepted, however, andprevented from reaching the upper pole by the cross belt which removesthem quickly from'the field and influence of the'magnets and casts themto one side, as shown in Fi 7, where they may be caught by any suita lereceptacle, 'not shown.

In the mining of feldspar certain parts of the mine give rock whichdiffers in feldother is deficient in feldspar of one or another kind,

or other ingredient. Other is deficient in quartz, alkali or otheringredient.

In the operation of our process the rock from a certain mine or from agiven part of the mine is loaded into the crusher 20 and there crushed.From thence it passesonto the elevator 18 and onto the conveyor 15 whichhas been so positioned as to deliver therock to a specific bin 10. Thuswhen such a bin has been filled, or when rock is brought from otherparts of the mine, or from other mines, the conveyor is shifted so asto' deliver to another bin. In each instance, a rock from a certainmineor from a part of the mine is kept in a difierent bin or bins as thecase may be. In addition to above referred to bins of rock, one of thebins 10 is preferably stored with pure quartz, or alkali in suitableform while anotherbin may be filled with pure feldspar or'otheringredients. When it is desired to make any certain mixture, the sampleswhich are collected in the pans 17 during the delivery of the rock tothe respective "bins are analyzed, and by proper calculation a definiteWeight of rock from one of the bins is fed to the hopper 24, and thismay be followed .by rock from some other of the bins of mined rock,while, if desired, a pure feldspar or pure quartz or other ingredient,such as alkali, may be mixed with the contents of the hopper 24.

Then the hopper is moved to discharge to the conveyor 25 which feeds tothe bin 26 so that the materials may'run down to the pulverizer 28 wherethey are thoroughly pulveris definitely proportioned forhis particularpurpose so that he is prevented from losses due to improperlyproportioned flux.

By this invention a simple and efiicient process is provided whereby thediverse feldspars occurring either in the same or different mines can becompounded at the mill into feldspathic flux of desired compositiomandwhereby such flux can be duplicated or modified as desired.

1 Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, is:

1. The process of producing feldspathic flux for porcelain, glass and soforth consisting in separately crushing diiferent'batches of feldspathicrock containing mica, delivthe ering the crushed rock to differentpoints of sults of such analyses, pulverizing and niixing the combinedcrushed rock and material, and then .removing the mica particles fromthe pulverized mixture;

2. The process of producing feldspathic flux for porcelain, glass and soforth consisting in se arately crushing difierent batches of fel pathicrock, delivering the crushed rock to difierent points of storageaccording to the source in' the mine, analyzing a sample of each of theseparately stored crushed rocks, combining predetermined quantities of.the crushed rock from any selected point of storage with the necessaryquantity and kind of material in which said rock is deficient inaccordance with the results of such analyses, and then pulveri'zing andmixing the combined crushed rock and material. 7 4

3. The process of producing feldspathic flux of specified composition,co'nsistmg in mining feldspathic rock of different grades, crushing andstoring same in separate bins according to the grade, separatelyanalyzing each grade, combining calculated quantities of the severalgrades of crushed rock from f selected points of storage as determinedby the grades. analyses to produce the desired flux composition, andcombining the calcuf lated quantities.

4. The process of producing feldspathic Flux ,of specified composition,consisting in nining feldspathic rock of difiering grades, :rushing andStoring such rock in separate )ins according to the grade, sampling eachgrade as stored, separately analyzing each ;ample, combining calculatedquantities of be several grades of crushed rock from seected points ofstorage as determined by the ;amples analyses with calculated quantitiesf other materials, to produce the desired flux :omposition, and mixingand pulverizing the :ombined calculated quantities.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signaures.

CHARLES H. PEDDRICK, JR. PHILIP WAGER LEWIS

